Sporting activities, such as mountain biking, off-road motorcycle riding, downhill skiing, snowmobiling, auto racing and hand gliding frequently involve covering considerable distances, at high speed and with constantly changing body positions. Many enthusiasts and participants in these sporting activities and other high-intensity sporting activities are intensely interested in their respective sports and often like to make and view video recordings of their participation in the sporting activity.
Traditionally, such recordings are made by a second party capturing the participant on tape with a video camera recorder unit which are well known and readily available. However, such a recording lacks the thrill factor experienced by the participant. Furthermore, the participant would usually rather record the activity from the perspective they experience while participating in the activity. That is, they want to record the sporting activity exactly as they saw, heard and felt it, as opposed to the perspective of another party viewing their performance. They can then use the video tape recording to improve their skills, reminisce and share their enthusiasm with family and friends.
Furthermore, a second party recording will normally include only the sounds and narration of the camera operator and would not include the voice of the participants or the sounds that they experience. Recordings are usually more interesting, memorable, and desirable to listen to when they capture the audio images of the activity as well as the video images.
Video tape recordings of events in which a participant may be involved are available through some professional video production companies. For example, a ski resort may offer to film a skier as a memento of their trip. However, these recordings are second person recordings and they do not capture the experience from the participant's point of view. Furthermore, smaller events and informal outings with friends do not warrant the attention of professional production companies and thus, to make a recording, the participant must find a person to hold and operate the camera equipment. If a person is alone in their participation, such as is often the case with motorcycle riding or skiing, they usually cannot capture the event on video tape.
Additionally, the video camera recorders and commercial video equipment which are available for use by the general public are often inadequate for capturing the sporting activity because of the physical nature of the activity. For example, available equipment is cumbersome and in many cases is impossible to use while skiing or while operating a vehicle such as a snowmobile or motorcycle. Despite the inadequacies of video available equipment, many attempts are made in adapting available video equipment for capturing sporting activities on video tape. Skiers have tried to ski while holding, in their hands, a video recorder. This is not only dangerous, but also inadequate because the camera bounces around as the skier moves. The skier's performance is also hampered. Additionally, motorcyclists have tried to secure a video recorder to their motorcycle or to their helmet, but have not had much success in capturing the activity with stable, easily-viewed video images. Still further, snowmobilers have tried to affix a recorder behind the windshield of the snowmobile. Despite these efforts, the end results and the captured video images are still inadequate. As mentioned, these types of methods also hinder the participant's performance and have otherwise infringed on their enjoyment of the sporting activity.
Another drawback is using existing equipment, in this way, is the expense of the equipment and damage which may occur thereto during the activity. If a skier should fall or a motorcycle rider should wreck, which occurs quite often, the video camera recorder will fall to the ground from the skier's hands or on the motorcycle. Video records are delicate and will certainly be damaged if not ruined by most accidents of this nature.
Several previous inventions have been directed to capturing video images will maintaining the participant's hands free to move and handle other activities. However, the prior art devices require additional equipment or specially modified equipment not normally worn by the participant.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,953,766 discloses a camera mounted to the side of a frame which fits on a wearer's head. However, the device of the patent creates an off-center camera angle several inches to the right or left of the participant's line of sight. The camera mounting structure also must be worn on the head and would prevent the use of a helmet, which is a very undesirable situation in potentially dangerous sporting activities. The camera and mounting structures also create an unnatural weighted feeling to the side of the wearer's head. Still further, the camera equipment is left exposed to the elements creating a situation where by the equipment may be damaged. For instance the lens of the camera or the camera device itself may be broken by flying mud, rocks and related debris one encounters, such as while aggressively riding motorcycles in an off-road environment.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,516,157 discloses an eyeglass in which a camera and viewfinder are combined. Many participants in the aforementioned sporting activities are very particular about the type of equipment they use. This device forces them to use the specially formed glasses which are uncomfortable and may prevent the use of other necessary equipment. For instance, skiers generally wear sunglasses or double pane goggles, while motorcross riders wear single pane goggles and an open-face helmet with a wrap around mouth guard or chin guard. Snowmobilers on the other hand do not wear goggles, but prefer a full face helmet with a mouth guard and a shield to serve the purpose of goggles. The glasses required would interfere with the use of this necessary equipment and also may interfere with the participant's vision.
Additionally, prior art equipment requires specially made, expensive recording equipment to record the images captured by the camera unit. As will be appreciated, it is not very practical nor cost effective for sports enthusiasts to have to purchase and utilize specialized video recorded equipment in additional to their existing equipment. Commercially available video records are becoming ever more popular and are perfectly suited for capturing vacation scenes, parties and innumerable other events. Many sports enthusiasts have existing recorders which cannot be used prior art camera units. Therefore, a sports enthusiast will have to purchase two separate recorders and if they go on a vacation involving a sporting activity, such as motorcycle riding, they will have to carry both sets of equipment. They certainly will not want to use the reporting camera equipment for the normal videography, and as discussed above, conventional video camera recorders are not suited for capturing sporting activities from the participant's perspective.
It is therefore an objective of the present invention to provide a video camera system for use in recording participation in a sporting activity, and particularly in recording the sporting activity participation from the perspective of the participant.
It is further an objective of the invention to provide a video camera system which may be easily and readily used by the participant while engaged in the sporting activity and which will capture the audio images proximate the participant.
It is still another objective to record a sporting activity from the participant's perspective with adjustability in the system for capturing the activity in the line of sight of the participant.
It is another objective of the invention to utilize conventional video recording equipment and eliminate the need for more expensive specialized records and the costs associated therewith.
It is still another objective to maintain the conventional video recorder in a state where it can be readily used to make a convention recording.
It is yet another objective to film a sporting activity from the participant's perspective while interfering very little with the necessary equipment utilized in the activity or the vision of the participant.
It is another objective of the invention to provide a camera system which is easy to operate during the sporting activity, is not cumbersome to wear during the sporting activity and is readily and easily connected and disconnected in between successive sessions of the sporting activity.